HAPPY HORSES

Since hunting season is over, we turned out the horses so they could go down to the meadow.  They were really happy to get out of the corrals that they have been in for over 5 weeks.  Connie took a little video of them coming out of the corral, and it shows they are expressing their delight by running and bucking - well all of them except her horse Baylee the yellowish buckskin!  This is the first video we have posted on the blog.  We have a new little point and shoot camera that takes much better videos and pictures than our old one.

I also worked on a little bit more fence in the horse pasture where I happened upon a large pileated woodpecker working on finding something to eat in some old dead pondarosa pines.   I have only seen a few of these around here.

Happy horses

Sunrise this morning.

The woodpecker.

Caymay getting a little drink in the mud/utility room with new flooring.

HUNTING SEASON IS OVER

There are a few news items around our place.  1) Hunting season ended yesterday so life can get back to normal around here we hope.  We were able to go for a nice long hike to the east of us this morning and did not run into hunters who were hunting in areas they are not allowed to hunt in.  2) We are getting very close to finishing up with our flooring project.  3) Not new, but the elk are still around and hanging around our place.  I even took a couple of pictures of them today.

Gary and I went around the fences and fixed them up to where they will keep the horses in hopefully.  There were a few places that really needed fixing, but not as bad as we had anticipated given all the elk running around in the past month or so.  We plan on turning the horses out into the meadow again tomorrow and start feeding them down there.  There is about a quarter of mile of jackleg fence that is down on Jenkins Lane where we used to pasture our horses in the winter.  We don't use that pasture anymore so will wait until later to fix it all up.

Nice morning for a walk by sagebrush flat.

Jack spends more time watching the elk than he does eating.

You can see the elk on the other side of the corral fence.

When I went to get my fencing bucket from the wood shed, I found it full of pine cones courtesy of one of the local squirrels.

They have also hid a lot of them in the wood of the woodshed.  Maybe it is going to be a hard winter.

UPDATE 22 NOVEMBER 2011

We have completed the flooring downstairs in the kitchen/front room area, well we still have to put the trim back on and a few other finishing touches.  But the floor is down.  Our knees are sore and we are going to take Thanksgiving off and will work on it later. 

The weather has sure warmed up.  It was in the 40's today - the snow melted and now we have mud on the road.  Still snowing in the mountains and the big news is that our ski resort is going to open on the 1st of December.  That means I have to get skis down and tune them up.  Connie is looking forward to skiing this year - I am trying to convince her to get some fatter powder skis.  We will see. 

Still lots of elk hanging around.  There were 70 head in the hayfields below Gary's place yesterday.  Today 40 some head were in our place.  We can sure tell when they are around as the horses spend a lot of time with their heads up watching or listening to them in the trees below the corrals.  They also refuse to eat on the west side of the hayshed when they are around.  Afraid to turn their backs to them I guess.  Travis got a buck deer on the sledding hill yesterday and was texting his brother with a picture of it when some elk walked withing 40 yards of where he was sitting. 

A work in progress.

Measure twice, cut once - a great saying Connie's dad Wendell taught me.

The kitchen finished except for the trim.

Catmay's favorite position while watching TV next to where I sit.

STILL WORKING ON THE FLOORS

Finished the upstairs bathroom and now are downstairs working the kitchen area.  The prep work takes longer than actually putting down the laminate, but all of it is taking us longer than I would have thought.  We are making progress though. 

The finished upstairs bath.

Starting to work on the kitchen area.

We had some turkeys trying to find pine nuts under the trees today.

We get a kick out of watching these birds.  They sometimes just run for the fun of it I think.

NEW FLOORS

We started putting down some new flooring in the bathrooms and kitchen area of the house.  Well, we just started in the upstairs bathroom today.  Getting the place ready to actually putting down the floor takes longer than putting down the laminate flooring.  And our learning curve was pretty steep.  But we think we have the hang of it now.  Will finish the upstairs bathroom tomorrow and start getting the downstairs area prepped. 

Snow showers off and on the last few days and the elk are still in the area.  Nothing has changed this week.

Click to enlarge any photo.

Around 60 head just across the road from our meadow.  

The upstairs bathroom just before we started.

The foam pad down.

And some of the flooring down.

UPDATE 15 NOVEMBER 2011

We have been a little busy the last few days.  I have been busy with physical therapy for my back and also had a echo cardio stress test, which went well.  Doc wanted me to have one with all the family history of heart problems.  Was really neat watching my heart beat on the ultra sound monitor.  They even made the blood flow direction different colors.    We also picked up flooring for the kitchen, mud room, and both baths yesterday.  That is a project we should start this weekend. 

It must be close to Thanksgiving - the turkeys are hanging out in the barn yard.

 I swear this looks like a mosquito - it was flying around me coming back from my walk the other day so grabbed it out of the air.  It was pretty cool and it was flying really slow.

A 3 X 4 walks across our driveway this morning.

And the does are hanging around eating on the lawn.

Then there is Catmay - she just loves this time of year.  Starts out in the mornings in front of the fire and then snuggles down in the pillows on the bed for her afternoon snooze.

VETERANS DAY 11-11-11

Our Corvallis American Legion Post puts on a Veterans Day Parade each year.  It is not much of a parade, but our Post and any other Veterans are welcome to march with us.  We had the Knights of Columbus join us this year also.  We start at one end of town and March down Main Street (2 blocks) turn around and march back (2 blocks).  Doesn't take that long, but we have a good time and more people show up every year.  In the evening we have a dinner in Hamilton at the Eagles Club.  So that pretty much sums up what Connie and I did for Veterans Day.  Hope yours was as good.

Marching down Main.

Some curious clouds on our way into Hamilton for our Veterans Day dinner.

FIRST SNOWFALL OF SEASON

We had our first snowfall of the season that actually stuck to the ground.  Started snowing in the evening and continued for a few hours so we did end up with some white ground although the temperature was not that cold.  Hunting is in full swing now with elk all over the place.  Last night they were down at the intersection of Willow Creek Crossroads and Willow Creek Road out in a field just watching the cars and hunters go by.  This morning they were on the south side of Willow Creek Road and the game warden had the road closed so they could cross it and guess where they headed - right to our place.  Our fences are taking a hit this fall.

The start of the snow.